THE FUEGIANS. 



435 



COAST OF FUEGIA. 



CHAPTER XLI. 



THE FUEGIANS. 



Their miserable Condition. — Degradation of Body and Mind. — Powers of Mimicry. — Notions of Barter. 

 — Causes of their low State of Cultivation. — Their Food. — Limpets. — Cyttaria Darwini. — Constant 

 Migrations, — The Fuegian Wigwam. — Weapons. — Their probable Origin. — Their Number, and 

 various Tribes. — Constant Feuds. — Cannibalism. — Language. — Adventures of Fuegia Basket, Jem- 

 my Button, and York Minster. — Missionary Labors. — Captain Gardiner. — His lamentable End. 



nj^^HE wilds of Tierra del Fuego are inhabited by a race of men generally sup- 

 posed to occupy the lowest grade in the scale of humanity. In a far more 

 rigorous climate, the Esquimaux, their northern antipodes, exhibit skill in their 

 snow huts, their kayaks, their weapons, and their dress ; but the wretched Fue- 

 gians are ignorant of every useful art that could better their condition, and 

 contrive scarcely any defense against either rain or wind. 



But even among the Fuegians there are various grades of civilization — or 

 rather barbarism. The eastern tribes, which inhabit the extensive plains of 

 King Charles's South Land, seem closely allied to the Patagonians, and are 

 a very different race from the undersized wretches farther westward. A man- 

 tle of guanaco skin, with the wool outside— the usual Patagonian garment — 

 loosely thrown over their shoulders, and leaving their persons as often exposed 

 as covered, affords them some protection against the piercing wind. The con- 

 dition of the central tribes inhabiting the south-western bays and inlets of this 

 dreary country is much more miserable. Those farther to the west possess 

 seal-skins, but here the men are satisfied with an otter skin or some other cov- 

 ering scarcely larger than a pocket-handkerchief. It is laced across the breast 

 by strings, and according as the wind blows it is shifted from side to side. 



